Restaurants you visit

Quite many of us seem to enjoy cooking very much! Sometimes it's also nice to go to restaurant for fun, and it's easy to choose from a variety of different ethnic and domestic restaurants if you live in a big city. I live in a small town and we tarditionally had obly some pizza/kebap places, in addition of our Finnish restauramts. But of course,interbational kitcens have come even our little town with the new inhabitants, and that's very welcomed. We have two chinese and one Thai restaurant already, and soon they will open a Nepalese restaurant very near to us! Must try, I think the kitchen could resemble Indian, but I haven't ever visited Nepalese before.

When I was living in Helsinki, my favourite restaurants were Chinese, Italian, and Russian. The Russian restaurants in Helsinki are especially good. Delicious food, beautiful interioirss, nice athmosphere!

If you go out for dinner, what restaurants do you prefer?

I apologize making so many typo errors, but I can't see the red text on black background properly... Is it possible to change the colour myself?

Good point about the colour scheme... I was thinking the same thing... can you change that Julie so we can see what we are writing a little better? (I hope we are not being too fussy and demanding!! )
We rarely go out to eat, but since we signed up for "groupon" (a site which make several daily special offers to restaurants, various activities and services etc.) we found several great deals, and thanks to these coupons now we go out to restaurants every now and then.
We prefer going to exotic restaurants and try something new, or something which are too difficult to prepare at home. We cook many of the italian dishes pretty well ourselves, so we prefer cooking them at home.
I especially enjoy Indian and Lebanese, and we just acquired a new coupon for a restaurant that specializes in Eastern African Cuisine which is pretty new to us, so I am very looking forward to that experience!!

I put it in Black and White, because I can't change the "Black" screen from the response pannel, so I got to choose colors more visible I'm sorry for the inconveniance I created lately Tell me if it's okay, girls?

About food, I usually go to Italian restaurant or Thai. Chinese, not so much lately. Next week, we will go to a Greek restaurant to celebrate my parent's birthday. I wish I could find a Russian restaurant

Oh yes I forgot about Greek!! I can make Moussaka, Spanakopita, Dolmades, Tzatziki and Baklava pretty well, but I know there are whole lot more to Greek food so I like to go to a restaurant and try some new dishes too :-)

And the colour scheme box is much better now, much easier to read!! Thank you so much Julie

I never made Greek food but I love to eat it! I'll post pictures of the dishes I'll have next week.

These Greek food I make are pretty elaborated and a little time consuming (with the exception of Tzatziki), but technically not so difficult, they are really worth the effort, great for a special occasion! You should try it Julie!
I am looking forward to the piccies!! Great to know that I am not the only one who would take pictures of food when going out to restaurants, other people often think I am way too obsessed when they see me doing so

Well it's especially because I'll be out with my familly so we usually take pictures! But I like to photograph the food as well.

Thank you Julie for changing the coulour! It's so much better now! Now I can see all the mistakes I make. But of course, I still make mistakes, it doesn't only depend on seeing, but knowing how to write the words correctly.

Greek kithcen - yes! It's one of my favourites, too! (I like so many kitchens). We have made Greek meatballs, tsaziki, souvlaki, and of course, Greek salad at home. And pastitsio and moussaka. Greek people love very sweet desserts, I'm not too much fond of them, but the main dishes are really good.

Would you tell us a little bit of Lebanese kitchen, Licia? What is your favourite dish? I haven't visited any Lebanese restaurant yet.

I'll tell you about our new Nepalean when it's opened and I've visited.

http://www.asrestaurants.com/EN/restaurants/saslik/photo-gallery.html

Russian restaurant Saslikki in Helsinki.

Lebanese cuisine has some significant similarity to Greek Cuisine, and other mediterranean/middle eastern cuisines. They share several dishes as well (perhaps the recipe may vary slightly) and many aspects/style are crossed over.
To me, the best parts of the Lebanese are the wonderful variety of hors d'oeuvre and desserts, and I would be more than happy with a rich assortment of these two courses without the main course

Some examples of hors d'oeuvre:
falafels: tasty little balls or discs made with spiced, ground garbanzoes/chickpeas, often enjoyed with tzatziki or tahini sauce
tabouleh: refreshing salad with cracked wheat (bulghur), parsley, mint, tomatoes ando various spices
fatoush: another colourful mixed salad topped with toasted pita bread
hummus: creamed garbanzo seasoned with tahini, lemon, garlic and touch of spice, enjoyed with toasted pita
baba ganoush: pureed grilled aubergine, seasoned just like hummus and also enjoyed with pita
dolmades: just like the greek version
sambousak: fried pastry stuffed with cheese

Desserts are usually based with phyllo or kataifi pastry, rich with various nuts, honey, cheese, rose water etc. Baklava is one of the most popular choices, just like in Greek cuisine. They come in small, bite sized portions so even if you don't care for a very sweet dessert, you may enjoy a piece after the dinner, and anyone with sweet tooth like me, goes for several pieces :-D

Check out this site of a Lebanese restaurant in London, there are some enticing pictures ( I picked this one so you can read the descriptions as well, rather than the one in Rome I frequent, which is entirely written in Italian!)


Al Waha Restaurant, London

Kati wrote:

http://www.asrestaurants.com/EN/restaurants/saslik/photo-gallery.html

Russian restaurant Saslikki in Helsinki.

mmm, interesting!!! I want to order Blinis with mushroom salad, Smoked salmon Baikal and Czar's chocolate plate

Interesting to see "Chicken Kiev" actually, I always thought it was an American invention (like many of their version of "Italian" dishes), but the description also fits... so I guess it is authentic!! (although it should technically be Ukranian rather than Russian... )

Oh and I stay clear and very far away from anything with "bear meat"

OMG! *DIES*
This Russian restaurant is like my ultimate dream! I wanna try everything!

Lebanese cuisine has left a big impact on me and not especially a good one xD. I'll explain: When I was at school, we organized a dinner where every student had to bring a dish. A lebanese friend of mine brought a thyme cake. I was a bit doubtful about it but as I like to discover things, I tried it out. It was absolutely uneatable! Too much thyme, perhaps.

I went to a fantastic restaurant during what is called the "Resto days". It's like an event, made twice a year, for people who want to discover other restaurants. The prices are lower on this occasion, which brings people who want to try out few dishes. I've been there twice and I loved it. Some pictures are on my FB profile but here's the link to the website:
http://www.lesfoudres.be/index.cfm?langue=EN

Funny thing is that it's location is only 5 minutes away from my University! The risotto is to die for.